Three documents that your parents need now. Power of attorney, health care proxy, and a HIPAA waiver. Why? Well, you want to help your parents. Listen, these documents are good for anyone. I’m specifically speaking in reference to an elderly subset. Persons that need assistance. And any other person that may become incapacitated. or has trouble hearing or an infirmity or a condition that perhaps interferes with their ability to discuss things with their healthcare providers and their financial issues. So a power of attorney is a document that allows one person to step into the shoes of another person for issues related to finances. But that’s a broad category. So you could deal with a person’s insurance company and The insurance company for car, home, auto, life. You can deal with the IRS. You can deal with their attorney on certain designated issues. You can deal with government agencies, Medicaid, programs, a wide variety. You know, their phone provider, Time Warner Cable, Spectrum, whoever you need to deal with. Healthcare proxy. When there is a crisis situation, it allows a proxy. to step in the shoes of the person and have a dialogue with their medical provider, Quest, or even authorize procedures. And then the HIPAA waiver. Well, the reason we may need that is because in this age of privacy, the HIPAA, H-I-P-A-A, waiver allows you to authorize a person to get and review and obtain and see your medical documentation. So that’s all for now. Get these forms. They’re useful for your parents and they’re useful for you to have as well. And it doesn’t have to be an adult child for a parent. It could be a spouse having it for a spouse. It could be a long-term partner having it, right? So a variety of uses for these several documents.

Should you place your home in a living trust? Yes, why not? Well, there are many reasons to do it. A home is oftentimes the largest asset a person has, and it’s important for the person that owns the home to direct where that property should go after their passing. Many people want to keep it as part of an estate plan. And a living trust, a trust that you create while you’re alive, is one of the best options to get that property from your name to your loved one after your passing. It also allows incapacity planning, meaning if you own the home and have a circumstance where you’re incapable of handling your own affairs, well, your trustee or your successor trustee can take care of the home. So that’s a great reason to use a trust. It also will allow you to avoid probing. So those are some of the several highlighted reasons to have a trust. Some questions I get are, if I have a mortgage, can I place my home into a trust? Yes, you can. It does not activate the due on sale clause. It is not a sale as categorized as a sale. It’s a transfer. It’s a permissible transfer. And can you obtain a favorable mortgage if you have a trust? Well, you have to check the lenders. You definitely can keep the same loan. You can even refinance. But once you have the home and trust, you have to search out for the best rate for a property that’s owned by a trust. It is possible. You can refinance. If you have any questions about this, please reach out. Take a look at the website, frankbrunolaw.com.  

Answered                      Frank Bruno Law is where you can find all of the answers to many of your problems. What do we handle there? There is information on estate planning, elder law, guardianship, divorce, and real estate. Yes, so many things. And yet we have an emphasis on those areas of law. It’s myself. and an associate, several other attorneys, several paralegals, and we work together as a team. I’m the chief attorney on issues related to guardianship and estate planning and issues related to elder law, which is a broad spectrum of, I don’t know, interrelated laws. I also take on court appointments in surrogates court. We probate and we do divorce and we handle real estate. Why do we do those things? In life, I’m trying to do interrelated. They’re interrelated. In estate planning, we take what you have while you’re alive and we make a plan to pass it on to your loved ones, your spouse and children, your friends and family, your house of worship. And that involves the use of an estate plan. What is that? Well, it’s a plan for your estate. It either could be a trust, it could be a will, it could be by specific designations on the various documents. And if we utilize a trust, they come in two flavors, irrevocable and revocable. There are special needs trusts, but that’s not part of this conversation. So when we utilize a trust, we take the assets that you have, which oftentimes include real property, a house, an apartment building, a commercial property, and we take the deed and we transfer it into the trust. That’s why we do real estate. I represent trusts that sell property. I represent trusts that buy property. I represent persons that transfer property from their individual name into their trust. So it’s sort of interrelated or at least adjacent. Real property is estate planning adjacent. And then because we handle litigation, we handle divorce and guardianship litigation. You might say guardianship, but no, Well, oftentimes they’re the same population. Children that are fighting over their parent are the same people that as parents fight over their children. That’s a conundrum. But it’s families fighting over family members. Yes, it happens in family court, in Supreme Court, in divorce matters, in Supreme Court for guardianship cases, and in the surrogates court fighting over a loved one’s money. It happens in all of those places. And we follow the cases and we We handle the cases across the several areas of practice and the several courts. So if you need us, we’ll be there. Check it out. FrankBrunoLaw.com. Thank you.      

I had several client consults, one about divorce, one about guardianship, and one about estate planning. I handle those areas in the office with the assistance of my associate and a few other remote attorneys, something like that. So let me go over the guardianship. Now, the person that called me had been or is the caretaker of their parents. This person is taking care of their parent through the use of a power of attorney. transferred the house to themselves directly, took money out of the parent’s bank account, and transferred it to that person, to himself directly. Now, this was done through the advice and consent of an elder law attorney, not me, another attorney that took these steps in advance of filing an application for Medicaid. And the reason is as the caretaker child of a parent, there’s a legally permissible method to permit you to file for a Medicaid application and transferring the assets. Now, what is the problem? Well, that in and of itself could be a problem if the assets were transferred with the use of a power of attorney and the parent did not have full capacity, did not have the ability to reason and think and transfer. And what is the intervening event? There is a second child of this parent. So the other child is now up in arms stating, you’re looking to… knock me out and take all of our parents’ money. So this was the conversation. This was the exercise. Do we file now for guardianship or do we attempt to withstand a filing of a guardianship petition from the sibling? What are the repercussions? Is it better to wait and let this person assert or allege that you’ve taken this misconduct? and then defend with, well, this was under the advice and consent of an attorney and our parent is still alive and this was a reasonable transfer. Does that argument hold water? Does it make sense? Is it the appropriate approach? What about if the person that had made these transfers files for guardianship? Well, can you withstand the court? Will the court, will any persons involved in the court, will any attorneys for any of the other notice participants Well, they say, hey, that transfer was impermissible. Transfer the property back to parent. These are the considerations. They’re very fact specific. And we need to take a look at what was done, when it was done, why it was done. And in reality, whether there’s a divorce or guardianship or any other kind of litigation, those are valuable questions. Why was it done? When was it done? How was it done? And why was it done? When, why, how? The three whys questions.

Deadlines abound. If you send a demand letter, it gives an expiration date for you to receive back documents or an action to be taken. If you have a client buying a house, you have to get a mortgage. If there’s a mortgage contingency clause, you have to get a mortgage within a certain date. If you’re setting a closing, there’s an on or about date or an on or before date or a fixed date if it’s a time of the essence. declared in advance. So deadlines. If you have litigation, you’re filing for a divorce, there’s a summons with notice. The other side has to reply within a certain period of time. If you do a summons or complaint, the other side has to submit an answer. And that’s the document. It’s called an answer within a certain period of time. If you file a guardianship case, all guardianship cases start with a rapid pace and you file by order to show cause and there’s a date set at the outset. Deadlines are all around us. Now, does that mean that you can’t get extensions or delay? And if there are so many deadlines, Why do court cases last so long? Well, they really do. They really do for a variety of reasons. So a counsel may ask for additional time to submit documents or prepare documents or to obtain information. There may be a discovery period of time. Discovery is where information is exchanged and you take the process of discovering information some of the underlying facts. And that takes a certain period of time with some extensions. There may be depositions. Depositions are where opposing counsel questions my client and other witnesses and vice versa or reversal of fortune. I get to question the other side and other different witnesses. Even when a case is concluded and There’s been closing arguments. Oftentimes there are summations. Summations are the written, each side makes written arguments where they advance their positions. And there’s time provided for that. Matter of fact, I’m involved in one such case. to submit their summation and the other side consented because they need time as well. So this happens all the time. Deadlines, you can’t blow a deadline. You can’t miss a deadline, but you can request an extension of time and with good cause. And I’m a busy person. That might be, I mean, if that’s the application, I need more time because I’m busy. I don’t know. That may or may not fly. But if you then explain this trial came out, came about, this other circumstance happened, this illness, this condition, some of the stuff of life, legitimate reasons to request an extension. Deadlines meet and exceed. Expectations.

I received a waiver of citation. What do I do? Well, as in all things law, it depends. So let me give you the condition precedent. The situation that caused you to get. Someone passed away. And if there was no will, you might be entitled to inherit. So someone passed away with a last will and testament. And inside of a last will and testament, there is an executor. The executor has to get appointed to handle the affairs of the estate. To take assets that were in the individual name of the decedent. the person that passed away. So they have a house, they have a bank account, stock, bond, brokerage account, something in their name, an asset in their name individually, and it’s stuck frozen in that person’s name. So the executor of the will has to get appointed to become the fiduciary, to become the responsible party for the estate, to handle those affairs, the matters related to the estate. And part of the court process is you can file a citation. That’s like the, hello, there’s a court proceeding, right? You’re citing someone to come to court. The alternative to that is that instead of citing the person, sending out legal process, you can send them a waiver. And they say, I consent to this person being the executor. I’m not going to object to the will. There’s that scenario. And then there’s the cousin to that scenario. If a person passes away without a will, a loved one, a family member has to file to be the administrator of the estate. It’s a cousin of the executor. It’s the same type of role, same fiduciary responsibility, taking care of assets that were in the name of the deceased person, taking care of the affairs of the estate. But instead of being an executor because there was a will, you’d be the administrator in an administration process when there’s no will, that person died intestate. So a citation, we’re filing papers to administer the estate or the proposed administrator can send you a waiver of citation where you say, I consent. I have no objection to that person becoming the administrator and I think they’ll do a fine job. So what would you do if you received a waiver of citation? Go in full circle. If you had no objection to the will and you trusted that person and you thought the will was done in a valid way. Then you sign the waiver. Return it to the attorney for the estate. And by the same token, if you are satisfied that the person that’s the proposed administrator can do a fine job and you have no objection to that person handling the estate administration, then return the waiver. If you want to object to a will, if you want to fight the will, reach out. If you want to consent to the will, you just want to make sure that you’re all of the I’s dotted and the T’s crossed, reach out. As you can see, whether you want to fight or whether you want to consent, you should reach out to me.

Blended families, when done right, supply joy for all. But when you don’t land properly, it produced their own sets of difficulties and circumstances. Because if you have children from a prior marriage and you don’t properly plan well, what could happen? And what do I mean by don’t properly plan? Well, it’s layers of plans and levels of lengths and an array of plan if you have none. So you’re at zero. If you have a A will, you might be at a 7.5. And if you have a trust, you might be at a ten. So in this little story at ten is ten is really good. Well, if you have no plan, you follow the plan of New York State that’s intestate. And if a person passes away their asset, any asset they have in their individual name goes to their spouse and their children, spouse and children receive. So now what happens if a person is married and they have children from another relationship? Still their kids? If you own a house, that house, go to your spouse partially and to your children partially, but the spouse won’t.

That spouse may not want want to have shared and fracturing that sentence. Perhaps that spouse doesn’t want to provide for your child or the reverse. What would happen if you have your name on the deed with your spouse, but you also want to protect your children? You need a plan. So what are the things to do to figure out where things are going to go and how you want them to go and what to do? Well, speak to an estate planning attorney, this guy. Speak to a state planning attorney and let that attorney know what’s good, what it is that you’re looking to do, and then we can have a conversation about what would make the most sense for you and speak to your family. Let them know this is what I intend to do. I’m going to provide for my spouse for a period of time, and then the house is going to go to you children. I have money in a bank account that’s going to go children. And I want this other specific asset to go here or there.
Right. So for an attorney to speak to your family, think about the plan that you want take care of. Don’t just set a plan. Set a plan, but then don’t forget it. Don’t forget to review it or look at it again. Periodic and frequent reviews of your plan make sense. Either both with an attorney or on your own. Just looking at your plan and looking at your family dynamics. While I was providing for this person and now we’re not so close. So I want to remove that person or give that person something like that. And if you have minor children, name a guardian for your children, especially if they are children of a blended family. You want to make sure that they are taking care of it. So those are just some of the things that I’d like you to think about when you have a thank you.

Americans do not want to think about what happens when they pass away, when they die, when unfortunately they do not live forever, at least not yet. In a Harris poll, because we always believe in polls, it has been realized that more than 50% of all Americans do not have a will. I do not know the statistics in other countries, but in America, overall, 50% do not have wills. No estate plan in place. no trust, no plan for when you pass away. And in certain minority communities, one in three or one in four people have a will. So give you the overall statistic. And in some segments of the population, it’s even more people, a higher percentage of persons not paying attention to what happened, not thinking about it. Why not? Well, at the outset, it involves a difficult conversation, a difficult thought process, coming to terms and to grips with your own mortality. Who wants to think about it? Well, My suggestion is, my counsel, my directive is that you think about whether it’s difficult or not, uncomfortable or not, because you’re not thinking about it for yourself. Because when you’re dead and gone, mostly everything doesn’t mix up. People keep on going, right? So your spouse could unfortunately be that they’re… I guess that’s a tricky thing, right? If I pass away before my spouse, it’s boohoo for me and better for her. But how can I say, unfortunately, that the spouse outlived you and that doesn’t work, right? The point is, at some point, if I pass away before my spouse, she has to think about, she’s the one with the problem. Or, it’s not me, I’m somewhere else. Not down below, it’s gonna stay in the ground. I guess it could be on a wall too. But if I’m not around, it’s the loved ones that are left with the pieces to pick up, right? I don’t wanna be too melodramatic. I’m already melodramatic enough. The plan allows a person to, your family members, your loved one, the people you care about, allows them to pick up the pieces seamlessly. Check to create a plan. That’s what it has to do. Please think about that.

A friend of mine wrote an article on leaving the original documents with your attorney. And it’s because he had a cautionary tale where a person was going to leave assets to a specific individual. That individual did not reside at home and upon the passing of the person, other family members, this is the accusation, allegation, contention, that other family members that had access to the home made that will disappear. I don’t know if that’s accurate supposition. This person doesn’t know it, but it at least is a reason for why you might want to have your original documents remain with the attorney so it’s there and safe, keep safe. And that’s because in New York, there’s a requirement that the original will be produced for probate original, not a copy. If you cannot find the original will, the presumption is that test date or the The person making the will destroyed, ripped it up and didn’t want to use it. I received a call today from a client, a past client that I had done a will for several years ago, older person. She told me that circumstances have changed. Her given situation is that she is not presently married, has no minor children. So she is providing to nieces and nephews, friends, charities, a number. And her circumstances change. She does not want to provide for the persons that she previously provided for. So I do not have original will. And she acknowledged that. I said, you left my office with the original will. Yes, I do. I have it. Yes, I did. I do have it. We didn’t speak in that kind of click-clack talk, but she has it in theory. Look, in actuality, she could rip up that will if she really didn’t want to give to person A, B, or C. That leaves her with no will. And as a person that’s single, right, a divorced person is considered single. A widowed person is considered single. A single person with no children, well, then other relatives that she may or may not have an interest in providing for would be. receive money or benefit on her assets. But if she definitely doesn’t want it to go to person A, B, and C, well, just don’t have that original will anymore. It’s not the best advice. It’s practical advice. If you rip it up, then you have nothing else in place. And it’s your money, your assets, your legacy, your bequest. If you don’t want to give to person A, B, and C, you’re not required to. It’s your stuff. Rip it up, but then make a new one. Give it to person X, Y, and Z, or this particular charity, or… I don’t know, your favorite cause. Or real flesh and blood people that are presently in your life, you know, that have deep meaning to you. So if you need assistance, frankbrunolaw.com.

Welcome to this video, the highlight of my day, and I hope to make it the highlight of your day. What can we speak about today? Well, my idea was to speak about the intersection of elder law, guardianship, and estate planning. You do three things? Yes. And a few others in the office with the assistance of several paralegals, several associate attorneys, and myself, and a receptionist too, and an assistant. The whole team, you’d be amazed. What is estate planning? Well, the idea behind estate planning is… These are going to be short, brief summaries so you see how they interact with each other and how we work in the office. Estate planning, in summary, is taking what you have acquired during your life and passing it on to the people that you love.
Family, friends, church, synagogue, mosque, hospital. And then when does that happen? Well, it happens upon your passing. But if you use a certain type of strategy, perhaps a trust, you can plan. plan also to give away things. You could always give away things during your life, right? Take your house and give it to your child. Does that make sense? Does it not make sense? We can discuss those things. Take money and gift it away. You can do that as part of a strategy. Might make sense. But then what would happen if you became incapacity? Who’s going to handle your affairs, your home, your business, your life? your accounts. Well, we put a plan into place. So that’s the broad category of estate planning.
If you fail to make a plan and there’s an incapacity, some circumstance, a tragic event, and they’re always tragic, a car accident, a stroke, another kind of injury, or the onset of one of the diseases of civilization of Alzheimer’s or dementia. Well, if you have an incapacity, who can handle your affairs? Is that plan in place? And if If there’s no plan in place, then you need a guardianship. Guardianship is the court process where one adult person applies to be the guardian of another adult person. The statute is not specific to age. It skews older because more often than not, well, and it can affect young or old, perhaps someone with a significant developmental disability, an adult person might want to become the guardian for their 19-year-old child.
that child is now legally an adult. That’s one area or one area of guardianship. And then the other, again, it skews older because of the onset of dementia or Alzheimer’s or a condition like that, where perhaps one adult person is seeking to be the guardian of their adult parents, right? So a 50-year-old child seeking to be the guardian of their 75-year-old parent, or as I’ve had people in their 60s looking to be the guardian of a parent in their 80s, about a 20 year difference. There are people that have had children younger than 20, typically 25, 30 years, and that trend is going old. So the general category was elder law. Those are issues that affect the elderly, and then guardianship and estate plan.
If you have any questions about this, check out the website, frankbrunolaw.com. Plenty of articles, blog posts, informational points, And the website has, besides vlogs, it has videos. Please take a look around. If you have a question, reach out to us. FrankBrunoLaw.com. I’m trying to shut you up. Doesn’t want to go. I guess just stay with me. All right, here we go. 

In custody cases where one parent is seeking to enforce a period of parenting time that was existing and by order of the court, and there’s another parent trying to stop or prevent or limit the visitations of that other parent. Well, you get to see that all the time in family when there’s no danger or inappropriate conduct. And inappropriate’s a big spectrum, right? But if it’s safe for your child to have a visit with the other parent, they’re supposed to call at 7 p.m. and they don’t call at that 7.15 appropriate. What if they call 7.45? Less appropriate, but maybe a job. What if they’re supposed to call at 7 p.m. and they call at 8.45 p.m.? What do we do? Should the one parent enforce the phone call time and say, calling, it’s out of bounds, can’t call at that time? Or should they field the call, maybe run interference, ask if the call could be made or let that call go, proceed maybe for a minute or two? I don’t know. How do you navigate? We are confronted by this type of activity all the time. Is the parent that’s not calling timely? Is it a matter of work? And maybe that telephone call shouldn’t have been directed to be 7 o’clock. Maybe it should have been directed to be 8 p.m. Maybe it should have been 8.30 p.m. Also, it depends on the age of the child, right? If the child is four or five, what if the child is 12 to 16? Thinking an 8.30 call or a 9 p.m. call is fine. I have a 16-year-old child. I have a 19 and a 21-year-old, but my 16-year-old is not in bed at nine o’clock. You have to work with the other parent and the parent should honor the order. So I see it from both ends. The parent that is trying to enforce a period of parenting time, that parent should do everything they can do to comply with the order. And make the phone call and step out of work or get out of work and call on a cell phone, right? Seven o’clock, whatever they have to do. Because when the court ordered that there should be phone calls at seven o’clock on a given day of the week, that was your opportunity to say, no, seven o’clock, I’m at work or I need it to be 730 or 830, some other time. But if that order went into effect, then the last court should honor it. And conversely, the parent that is exercising custodial control, well, maybe they could be a little bit lenient with the times, maybe a little bit forgiving. But of course they’re not going to be forgiving because that’s why they’re in court fighting over this and other things.

What does any litigant want? What does any lawyer want in a contested court matter? You want the opportunity to be heard. If I’m making an argument on behalf of my client, my advocacy is what I want the judge to listen to, to hear, to feel, to resonate with, to vibe with. I just want a shot. Allow me to make the argument. Let me advance the position of my client. But then let the other attorney make an argument. Let that person advance an argument, right? Perhaps what I’m discussing is sometimes a judge will step on your feet or silence or be abrupt or not listen. Please allow me to make the argument. Then give the other side an opportunity to make the argument. That’s beneficial for me. I get to hear the argument, the position they advance, the articulation of the position of the person and the rationale behind it. Perhaps listening to that can assist me in settling the case. It can assist my own client in hearing the argument advance. They can see how persuasive it is. They can understand that the argument resonates with the judge if the judge is swayed by that argument. So it makes sense if this emotion and also oral argument allow us to argue the case. It makes sense. I dislike when judges curt or short and doesn’t want to hear the counsel I’ve heard enough. Well, you should hear it. Allow me to say it. I’m not going to be rude or discourteous or infringe upon your time. I just want to advance the argument once. And with that one time, I will convince you of the merits of my client’s position.

I was in court today on a real estate litigation matter and I was involved in the case and a colleague of mine, a friend for a long time, was there as well on a different case and we were having some conversation and people were up in arms about different aspects of their own given cases and there was some heightened emotions and My colleague said to me, you know, Frank, when you’re involved in your family, family law work or your guardianship works, as I see you as a healer, you bring that that sense. And here in this part, it’s all blood and guts. It’s all about dollars and cents. It’s all about the money. There’s continued negotiation, continued this and that. Right. So there’s a time and a place for aggressive, heavy hitting litigation down and out, blood and guts. And then there’s a place for meeting of the minds coming together. Simplicity. I don’t know if that’s even the word, but just a feeling where we have to meet somewhere. Can’t be everything you want and can’t be everything I want. It can’t be heads you win, tails I lose. It has to be better than that. It has to be, right? That’s the family mantra in 2024. We have to do better. And people, in your litigation cases, when we’re looking to resolve matters, we have to do better. Come to terms.

What is your process? Well, my process is when? Well, when I receive a telephone inquiry about a new case. Depends on what the new case is. So if it’s a transactional arrangement, my sister would like to buy a house. Can you be the attorney for my sister? Yes. I get calls like that all the time. I always wonder why. I guess it’s to be helpful. I wonder why the person themselves is not calling me. calling for my mother, calling for my sister, calling for sometimes even a friend. And I provide the information because it’s good for that person to know for future dealings with me. And if it’s not a situation where I really have to understand facts, I guess I always need to know facts, but if a person says, my sister’s looking to buy a house, can you be her attorney? Can you tell me a little bit about it? Well, sure, I could do that. And then I go through a little bit of a explanation. You may know the attorney for a seller prepares the contract sale. That attorney forwards it to the attorney for the buyer. The attorney for the buyer will review it alone and then review it with the prospective buyer to discuss terms, circumstances, confirm information. Is this the property address? And is this the price? And is that how you spell your name? What is the down payment? And what are your terms? Where are you living now? What are you looking to… When are you looking to close? You know, all of those circumstances. Then describe all of the issues related to contract. And then besides telling about the process, you know, from contract to closing, you independently seek a mortgage. I searched the title. We then speak about issues such as costs, cost of the attorney, the cost of obtaining a mortgage, the payment of the bank’s attorney, the closing fees. Did they have a realtor that buyer themselves were paying? inspections, survey. We talk about it all. And that’s it. That’s the process. That’s my process. That’s how I, in that specific area of practice, that’s how I go through these one by one to discuss what we do and how we do it. That’s my process.

Where is the probate court? Well, in New York, we call that the surrogates court. And the surrogates court is located on the sixth and seventh floor of the Supreme Court building. In Brooklyn, there’s a physical location also housed within another large. The surrogates court, for all of its jurisdiction, control, and power governing the end of life issues related to distribution of assets after a person has passed away, well, It can take place on a smaller scale than courtrooms and floors and floors of real estate infrastructure. So the court itself concerns itself with administration, probate, countings of those issues, and kinship. Any issues related to how you get an asset from a person’s name upon their death to a next of kin or a beneficiary or a distributee takes place. Some people try to bypass that court. They don’t want the involvement. They don’t want the public involvement. knowledge of their assets, their circumstances, and where money goes. So that category of person will use a trust. A trust is a private document that takes place, a living trust takes place while a person is living, living trust. And that is a set of instructions or rules. It’s a legal document that is, when done correctly, valid during the person’s life and has great effect during their life and after that, provided that the trust has the assets funded within it. So if I have a trust and a separate property in my individual name, the trust won’t govern, control that property until the property makes its way into the trust. So from all the way back to the surrogates court, there is a surrogates court in every county. In Queens, it’s physically located inside the court. Other counties have the surrogates court located elsewhere. Oh boy. But the question was, where’s the probate? Well, other places and other locations and other states call it probate. But in New York, we call it the survey. I think that’s it for now. And if you have questions about where the court’s located or how you file something, whether it be probate, probate or an administration or an accounting, or you have the need for a kinship, please reach out, give you a call. We’ll speak about it. Your people will connect with my people and information and assistance will be had by all.

Why do lawyers stand in the way of settlement and resolution? I don’t know why. And I don’t even know if that’s accurate. Although it feels directionally accurate, it sort of feels right that some lawyers do actually prevent their side from settling. And that could be. And that’s perhaps a topic for another day. What I often find is that a person involved in litigation blames their own lawyer. I agree with you, but my lawyer says I can’t. I’m almost, you know, I’m almost okay with, you know, taking that clause out, but my lawyer says I need that. For my own protection, really, so we have to leave. Or I would give you more time, but my lawyer says, or some portion of that. A person uses the excuse of the lawyer or the threat of the lawyer as a way to get some perceived or or realized advance. I really want to make fee payment in this agreement or I really want this kind of notice provision. That’s what I want. I’m going to say that’s with my lawyer and that the lawyer won’t agree or let me resolve the case without that power being in there. Listen, that’s part of the negotiation as well. It’s part of resolution and possible settlement talk, but it’d be nice if people could just be direct. Really, I think you should give me 48 hours notice. You shouldn’t just be able to call two hours, right? Or you should let me know about a change in schedule as soon as you know and not wait until the last minute. So, Sometimes lawyers put their kibosh on an agreement or a settlement and sometimes they just get blamed for it.

In a divorce, how is debt divided? Well, just like your assets, you have a million dollar property. You would sell it. You know what I realized? I answer a question before I answer the question. So I’m answering how to divide debt and instead I went into how to divide an asset. Give you a little bit about that. If you have an asset of a million dollars in stock, you don’t have to do too much. You’d sell the stock and transfer the cash. but it’s not the only way. If you have 200 shares of a stock, one spouse can leave with 100 shares and the other spouse can leave with 100 shares, like hanging up to the 100, 200. That’s one way to do it. Another way to do it is one person can receive all 200 shares of stock and the other person can get something else of equal value, sometimes equal or greater value, depending on the reason for that. So I wanna leave with the shares of stock and you want to stay with the home. Let’s figure that out. Or a person might want to leave with a pension plan, not dividing it at some future point, and you can keep your 401k. But debt, the same way that you would divide an asset, you can divide a debt. So the couple has a credit card debt. Well, you can keep the card that was yours and I’ll keep the card that was mine. But if there’s a difference, you owe 20,000 on your card and I owe 10. Well, what do we do with that other 10? How do we arrive at a solution? Well, we have to divide it. Now, one person can take it on the chin and say, I’ll take the debt for a variety of reasons. They had debt, was associated with an asset, and they kept the asset. What do I mean? Well, it’s not even an asset, but it’s an item. So say I have debt associated with a living room set. Well, I have the living room set. I have the dining room set. I’ll keep that item, those several items, and I’ll also pay off the debt. Or I’ll I have a vehicle and I’ll leave with the vehicle and the loan, the car loan. So the short answer is you divide it. You divide the debt and you apportion it between the two of you. And then the more complete answer is you throw the assets and the debt into a pot and you try and coordinate the math of it. I’m going to leave with these assets and the disassociated debt and or other debt like credit cards. The other person is gonna leave with something else. And the idea is to split it evenly. Evenly is sometimes in the eye of the beholder. We try and work through all that.